Col. Derek Harvey: Snowden Set US Spy Networks Back a Decade

It could take America and Great Britain a decade or more to re-establish its longstanding spy networks throughout the world after Russia and China reportedly were able to hack into documents smuggled by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Col. Derek Harvey tells Newsmax TV.

The hack also "prevents us from getting back in there over a long period of time because they also learned our operational procedures, how we manage these people, the tactics and techniques that are employed by them, and they can look at those patterns and probably identify others not just in Eastern Europe or Russia, China, but elsewhere," Harvey, director of the Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict, told "The Hard Line" on Tuesday.

Russia's recent announcement that it is adding 40 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles to its arsenal is part of an overall pattern of provocation, Harvey said.

"It's not just Crimea and Ukraine, they are coercing and intimidating Eastern Europe, Western Europe and trying to intimidate the United States," he said. And Western Europe doesn't seem willing to step up and take Russia on, he continued, and that's why nations are looking to the United States.

Russian President "Vladimir Putin is succeeding in his effort, and unless there's real committed U.S. leadership, which is what many are looking for, there's going to be severe doubt about the ability of the United States to provide the support required for the security of that region, he said.

It could take America and Great Britain a decade or more to re-establish its longstanding spy networks throughout the world after Russia and China reportedly were able to hack into documents smuggled by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Col. Derek Harvey tells Newsmax...